


Remember

by JamoonX



Series: From teacher/student to rivals to lovers [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27963485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamoonX/pseuds/JamoonX
Summary: Leonie could always recall the memory of Jeralt, the saviour of her village and master for a few days. There was someone else though, someone she had forgotten about. Someone who influenced her life more than she knew. Now, she remembers.I don't own Fire Emblem.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Leonie Pinelli
Series: From teacher/student to rivals to lovers [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2045536
Kudos: 4





	Remember

**Author's Note:**

> It never made sense to me how Leonie knew Jeralt but not Byleth. At least it was never explained or even questioned. So I decided to write this.

"What is going on there?", Jeralt wondered, sitting tall on his horse. He looked down at the foot of the little hill he was currently standing on.

"Looks like a bandit raid. I've spotted a dozen. Six in the town centre, three on the streets in the Western part, three in the Eastern part. Most people seem to be in their houses.", his son, Byleth, replied to him, sitting high on his horse as well.

"Damn, we are too far away from our camp to get reinforcements. We have to go down there, Byleth. So much for just scouting ahead."

"I suggest going down and starting in the west. The streets seem to be quite narrow, I should easily be able to dispose of them.", Byleth told, his voice calm as ever. He hopped down from his horse and bound it to a tree.

"Then I'll go east. They are the bigger ones anyways, I can handle them better. When you have taken care of them, find a good spot to look down at the town centre. I will find you then."

Byleth nodded and hurriedly snuck to the wall of a house. Like a shadow, he ran through the street without making a sound.

When he got to the first crossing, he glanced around the corner carefully. To the right, the street was empty, to the left, there was one bandit, knocking at the door forcefully.

"Open up! I saw you walking in here. If you won't come out by yourself, then I will come in, and not nicely!"

'I'm at the South-Western end of the village. I can quickly take care of him and place him in a bush. He looks scrawny, no upper body strength.', Byleth thought.

Almost with grace, Byleth ran towards the bandit and took a small dagger into his hand.

"I've warned you, I will...grrgh.", the bandit threatened, but was interrupted. Byleth jumped on his back, his left hand pressing to his mouth to surpress any scream, while the right hand, equipped with a dagger, slit through his throat.

'Hold the hand against the wound, or the others will be alarmed by the blood stains.', Byleth thought. He pulled the bandit out of the street quickly and into a bush.

When he himself hid behind the plants, peeking into the alley, Byleth noticed he wasn't alone.

Turning to his left, he saw a young girl, not much younger than him. She had simple, slightly torn clothes, just a few lumps sewed together to resemble something like a dress.

She had orange hair, going over her shoulders which was tied into two pigtails, eyes similar in colour and wide in shock and fear as they found his blue ones. She had a bow in hand, and despite her sitting position, he saw she was shaking.

Her mouth opened, probably in attempt to yell, but Byleth quickly pushed his left hand, the one without blood, onto her mouth so only muffled sounds were being heard.

"Jonathan?", another bandit yelled, walking through the street. Byleth's hand wouldn't leave her mouth, and fortunately enough, she didn't move away from him to scream. He moved his right hand up to make a 'shush' motion, and she complied.

"Hm, where is this good-for-nothing idiot?", the bandit wondered, and walked into another alley again.

Byleth looked at him, waiting until he was out of sight, and turned back to the girl.

"Listen, I'm on your side. You're a girl from the village, right?"

She nodded.

"Alright then. I will take my hand away, and you won't scream. Otherwise, we'll have even more uninvited visitors. Understood?"

She nodded again.

"Alright then.", Byleth spoke, and slowly pulled away his hand. She released a shaky breath, but true to her 'word', remained silent.

"Good. Wait here. My dad and I will take care of the rest."

In a crouching position, he followed the line of bushes growing at the border of the village, but had to look around to see he was being followed by the young girl.

"Stay behind, what are you doing?"

"I..", she started, her voice shaky "I want to come with you. They hurt my mommy and daddy, please."

"Too dangerous, stay behind.", he replied, cold and commanding.

"Please, I can fight. I'm not a little child, I want to help you.", the girl countered.

Byleth sighed. "Why is there no one else fighting?"

"They are all afraid. The bandits said whoever resists will get killed."

Byleth thought for a second.

"Can you handle this?", he asked, nodding towards the bow in her hand.

"Yes, I am a great huntress, believe it!"

"Look, these are not deer, they are people. Human beings, with human instincts and intellect. Killing a human is different than hunting. Do you understand?"

The girl looked shook, but nodded anyways.

"Yes, definetely."

He sighed. "Ok then, follow me, and stay close."

The two snuck further, looking into each alley, until they reached one where two men stood in, one of them was the bandit from before. They stood at the two sides of the street each, bags full of gold and valubale items already acquired from complicit villagers.

"I will handle those two myself, stay here for a second."

The girl looked like she wanted to voice her disagreement, but she accepted his order while he carefully walked over to the two thugs.

As he approached the left one, who was still turned to the door, Byleth took out his sword this time and thrusted it into his back. With that motion, he pushed the struggling man into the door, all the way until the blade pierced the wooden door as well.

"Huh? Hey, what do you think you're doing, punk?", the other bandit, alarmed by the sound, yelled while drawing his sword.

With swift ease, Byleth turned around and threw his dagger into the throat of the second man. He gurgled while blood ran down his body, and crashed down against the wall lifeless.

Byleth pulled out the sword from the lifeless corpse, and heard people running towards him.

'Three men. My only way back would be towards the girl. I'll have to fight.'

Right as he finished his thought, the bandits reached his position, all with drawn swords.

'The left one's position is off, he has no proper balance. I'll take him out first.'

"An intruder! Kill him!", the one in the middle yelled.

Byleth dodged two strikes directed at his torso, parried one strike from the weakest and pierced his chest, causing him to drop onto the ground.

"You'll regret that, bastard!"

Another strike from the enemy was dodged by a sidestep from Byleth, who quickly delivered a kick into the calf of the attacker. He fell face first into the wall, so now, Byleth stood in front of one bandit while the other stumbled behind him from the momentum of his fall.

The man in front of him tried to land very clunky slashes, easily overpowered by Byleth's more elegant movements. One slash to the leg to drop him onto his knee, and then another quick slash finished him off.

Unfortunately, the other bandit was up quicker than he expected, and delivered a punch to Byleth's head, whose sight blackened for a second.

"I'll make you pay.", the bandit grumbled and picked up his sword.

Byleth drew his sword again to block the first hit, but his slight lack of full consciousness caused the blade to fall down.

As the bandit tried to strike a second time, an arrow embedded itself into his shoulder.

The bandit turned around to see the girl at the end of the alley, and cackled maniacally.

"Run, run away!", Byleth yelled, but he saw that it was useless. The girl was frozen in fear.

"Well girl, aren't you a naughty one? I don't appreciate what you did here.", he snickered and walked towards her.

"Please stop there.", the girl mumbled. Byleth, on wobbly feet, tried to approach the bandit, but found it a bit hard to walk straight.

"I don't think you can order me to do anything.", the tall man replied, and now ran towards her.

"No, nooo!", Leonie yelled, and quickly fired off another arrow, which now pierced his chest on the left side.

The bandit fell down, bloody and lifeless, while the girl just started crying and dropped her bow.

Her hands moved in front of her mouth, as if she was trying to prevent herself from vomitting.

"Oh Goddess, please. I didn't mean to! I'm sorry."

Byleth, now back at his senses, heard the faint sound of clashing blades.

'Father can handle them, the other three looked weak. And her..'

He slowly approached the sobbing girl.

'How did father always do it? Put a hand on the shoulder, and speak encouraging words.'

So he placed his hand on the shoulder of the girl, only half a head smaller than him, and spoke. "You've done well. The first kill is always the worst. But you saved me, you can be proud of yourself."

The girl looked up, her orange eyes now red and puffy. "Really?"

"Yes. I can remember how horrible it felt to kill the first person ever. But you did it to protect yourself, me and your home."

The girl rubbed away her tears, and nodded. "Okay."

"What's your name? And how old are you?", Byelth asked.

"My, *sniff, my name is Leonie. I'm fourteen."

"Nice to meet you, Leonie. I'm Byleth, I'm sixteen."

"Byleth!", Jeralt ran towards him, a man and a woman who seemed to be a villagers next to him with a few bruises.

"Leonie!", both the man and the woman yelled, and ran towards the girl.

"Mommy! Daddy!", Leonie shouted as well and ran over to the two.

Byleth shot a questioning glance to his father, who responded.

"I met them on the other side of town. Apparently this girl left her house and ran away with a bow to protect herself."

"Yes, she saved me. She is young, but has a nice shot. Someone taught her to hunt."

Jeralt seemed surprised, but said nothing more as people slowly left their homes and came over to them to offer money as a thanks, which the two repeatedly declined.

"Hey Byleth, go back to the others. We will move the camp here, to wait a few days until we're sure that no one is coming around again.", Jeralt said, to which Byleth nodded.

When Byleth reached the village at dusk again, the other mercenaries following him, he searched for his father just outside of town.

They stayed a few days, and both of them were surprised to find the little girl, with the consent of her parents, at their camp asking for a bit of training. She was very excited to train with Jeralt because, and the sentence made Byleth's cheek slightly pink, 'anyone who trained someone as strong as Byleth must be very good.'

Jeralt introduced her to a few basic training and aim exercises, while Byleth practiced some easy swordplay with her.

"Try to bend your knees a bit. If you stand like a statue", Byleth started, and pushed her to make her fall down "you will fall down with even minimal pressure."

The girl 'hmpfed', but took the small lessons to heart and continued to train.

At the end of their stay, the girl regained her confidence, and seemed to be excited to learn more. But Jeralt's squad had to leave, and Leonie was the first to say her goodbye.

In the morning, the mercenaries wanted to start their journey, but were intercepted by Leonie, who, instead of her two pigtails, had a short haircut. Her bangs now barely reached her eyebrows.

"Oh, hello Leonie. What happened to your hair?", Jeralt greeted her warmly. The girl's boisterous nature was simply endearing.

"Hello captain! Don't you recognize that? It's the same as Byleth's!"

"The same as mine?", Byleth wondered, and gripped his hair. Judging from its length, he supposed she was right.

"Oh, it is, isn't it? How come?"

"He is so young, all the mercenaries with you are older, but he is by far the strongest, best fighter and apprentice. When I am as old as he is, I want to be just as strong, so I can become your best apprentice!"

"Hahaha, well, sounds like you have a lot of work to do then, Leonie. Keep up your training, and Byleth will have to watch out for himself.", Jeralt laughed from the challenge.

"Bye Byleth.", she said when she looked at the boy, and stepped forward to give an innocent little peck to his cheek. "You better train hard!"

Byleth rubbed his cheek, tinted by a slight pink, nervously, but offered her a signature, small smile nevertheless.

"Bye Leonie. Don't stop training, I don't want to pick up your slack one day."

Her smile was challenging, and his was a bit teasing, but they parted in good nature.

Five years later

'Wait... oh man, of course! That's where I remember him from! He was that guy!", Leonie thought, now, ironically sitting in the class of the boy she once already learned from.

When he looked at her while they wrote a little essay about gambits, he offered that same small smile she already saw back then, and grew to love.

She countered with that same smirk of hers, and went back to it.

'Goddess, he was the one I always wanted to be like. And now he's my professor. I hope I won't get distracted.'

She looked up, and their eyes met again. She looked down quickly, her cheeks pink.

'Or maybe, a bit of distraction wouldn't be so bad.'

Now that she remembered, she felt a bit embarassed about her introduction to him when he reached the monastery. She hoped he didn't find her too off-putting.

So once class was over, she immediately rushed forward to his desk.

"Professor, may I ask you something?"

He looked up from his paperwork, and nodded. "Of course Leonie, what can I help you with?"

"Oh nothing much. It's just, I remembered something. Do you recall us ever meeting each other before the monastery?"

Byleth briefly thought, then nodded.

"Yes, my father and I helped your village to fight off bandits. Correct?"

"Wait, you know?"

"Of course, my memory rarely fails me, Leonie.", he replied, smiling a bit.

"Why didn't you say something when we met again? Didn't you think I was being ungrateful to you, or anything?", she wondered.

He shook his head. "I didn't. You killed another human for the first time, this event was bound to be traumatic for you. Even though you handled it well, it's perfectly normal to forget some details, like me. Plus, I can tell I come off as rather... elusive. My father stands tall and is an imposing figure. You remembering him instead of me seems understandable."

She was surprised, to say the least, but looked understanding and satisfied with his answer.

Now, her challenging smirk was back again. "Well, I hope you don't think anything's changed since we last met. I'm still going to train, more and more. Got it?"

He smiled again. "No, Leonie. I figured you would stay by your word. Hope you can back it up."

"Well, in that case", she started, and leaned over his desk to give him a peck on the cheek, her cheeks now burning up red "I'm glad I got to meet you again, Professor Byleth."

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think? I don't know if I'm 100 percent satisfied with this, but I think that's a fairly reasonable way their first meet could've played out. Hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.


End file.
